A Chinese national will spend two years in prison for a scheme to smuggle more than $1.4 million worth of protected box turtles to Hong Kong.
He labeled the packages as plastic animal toys.
The Justice Department said Wei Qaing Lin, who had been living in Brooklyn, New York, shipped 222 packages to Hong Kong that contained about 850 turtles. Authorities intercepted the turtles during customs inspections. They had been bound and taped inside knotted socks inside the shipping containers, officials said.
Lin shipped the packages between August 2023 and November 2024.
Authorities said Lin, who pleaded guilty in the case, also attempted to export protected Abronia lizards along with venomous green tree and palm pit vipers. Some of the intercepted packages also contained rare Cora mud turtles, officials said.
“The Buffalo Zoo used the seized turtles to set up the first-ever assurance colony for the species, which can be used to repopulate them if the wild population becomes unsustainable,” Justice Department officials said in a statement.
Turtles are a prime commodity in the illegal wildlife trade, whether for food, traditional medicine or increasingly as status symbols for wealthy collectors, officials said.
Wildlife is protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, known as CITES.
Mr. Lin was investigated and charged as part of Operation Terrapene, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service-led ongoing investigation to detect turtle smuggling and dismantle the highly organized syndicates.
In addition to the two-year prison term, Lin was fined $2,339, which is how much U.S. currency he had on him during his arrest, officials said.
